The tutor
by Mister Bandpants
Summary: Ponyboy is starting high school and is assigned a tutor to guide him through high school. She seems to want to help Ponyboy, unlike most Soc tutors, but when Socs start targeting Ponyboy saying his tutor sent them, who will Ponyboy believe? Oc and OOC.
1. Chapter 1

Darry and Soda heard Ponyboy slam the door and then he came and sat down in a huff. It was one of the few Saturdays they both had off. They exchanged glances and Soda scooted closer to Pony.

"Okay, spill Pony. What's wrong? Did you not like freshmen orientation?"

Ponyboy sighed. "Well, it's not that. High school seems great, but we met our tutors today…"

"Ah, should have known." Darry interrupted. "Just tell us, did you get a boy or a girl?"

Ponyboy looked at Darry, confused. "A girl, but how did you –"

"It's always the same." This time it was Soda who interrupted. "You are assigned a tutor, someone to help you through high school. And they do – if you are a Soc. Otherwise, they are just another high school pain to deal with."

"You are lucky that you got a girl." Darry said. "Soda and I both got guys, and they jump you every opportunity they get. Girls usually just leave you alone."

"Usually?" Ponyboy asked uncertainly.

"Well," Soda said, "Sometimes they get their older brother or boyfriend to do it for them, but generally that's only if you don't quit buggin'em."

"Yea Pony," Darry said smiling "Something tells me even you use your brain enough to leave then alone."

"Yea, I guess" Pony said, looking at the ground.

Soda put his arm around Ponyboy. "It's alright Pony. You only have to deal her freshmen year, and tem you are free for the rest of high school."

"Just try to make the best of it." Darry said putting a hand on Ponyboy's knee.

"Okay, I will." Said Ponyboy, smiling. "By the way, where are all the guys?" He asked, for the first time noticing it was odd that none of them were there.

Darry and Soda glanced at each other. "We figured we would have to have this talk with you, to we asked them to clear out until you got back." Darry said.

"Yea, they should be showin' up now pretty soon." Soda said.

Sure enough, right after Soda said that, they heard the door slam.

( ) * ( ) * ( ) * ( )

Later that day, the entire gang had shown up, and was gathered around the TV, which was on full blast. Still, it was surprisingly quiet for the Curtis house. They were arguing about what to do when a knock was heard at the door an everything got silent.

"Darry," Soda said "Were you expecting a visit from the case worker today?"

"No" Darry answered shortly, staring worriedly at the door.

"Well then who's knocking" Soda asked. "No one knocks."

"One way to find out." Dally said getting up and opening the door. "What do you want?" They heard him snap from the living room.

"Does Ponyboy Curtis live hear?" They heard a girls voice say sweetly, seemingly not intimidated at all by Dally's fierceness.

"Yea, what of it?" Dally responded, getting angry that the girl was not afraid of him.

"May I see him please?" The girl responded, just as sweetly.

"And why would Ponyboy want to talk to some Soc girl?"

"I am his tutor and –"

"Oh, his tutor, so you couldn't wait for school to start, you have to come and bug him now? Tell me, where are the guys you brought to jump him?"

"Listen I –" She was interrupted again, but this time by Darry.

"Dally," Darry said, from right behind him. "Go sit down and let me talk to her."

Dally glared at her one last time before doing as Darry said.

Darry led the girl outside and closed the door behind him.

"So, you are Ponyboys tutor?" Darry asked. She nodded. "What's your name?"

"Margo." She said smiling.

"Well, you seem honest enough, but let me tell you something, if this is a trick you are playing, you better go play it on some one else's little brother. If I see him get hurt, it won't be long until you do. Understand me?

Margo sighed. "I knew I was going to have to deal with this." She said looking at the ground. She suddenly looked straight into Darry's eyes. "Now let's see if you understand me. I don't like the way the tutor program is, I think it should be used the way it is supposed to be, no matter the student's social standing, and I am trying to change that, one tutor at a time. I am not here to deceive you; I just want to help Ponyboy get through high school. Is that a problem?" Margo said, returning to her sweet tone.

"Not at all." Darry said sweetly, playing Margo's game. "Please, come in." Darry said opening the door for her.

"Thank you very much." Margo said going in and sitting in front of the coffee table in the living room. "Now Ponyboy," she said "get your textbooks you got today and come sit."

Pony boy shot a pleading look at Darry, but he just nodded, so Ponyboy did as Margo had told him.

"Now," Margo said as Ponyboy joined her at the coffee table. "I am going to show you how to make paper book covers."

Ponyboy shot another pleading look around the room, but they were all just smiling and trying to stifle their laughter.

**A/N** So there is the first chapter of my first fic, and I have never forced myself to write so much at one time as this. (I have a very sort attention span)

Let me just give a shout out to all those authors out there, I admire you so much. I can't imagine the will power it must take to write one of those 30 or 40 chapter fics. Or any fic at all, incredibly difficult. You are all my heroes.

So I am going to ask for all of you help. I want you to constantly review or pm me. With you help, we will finish this fic. Thank you so much

Jeez, when author's notes are this long I usually don't even read then. Once again, Thanks for reading, and I will see you all next chapter.


	2. Chapter 2

After Margo had shown Ponyboy how to fold and tape in the right places, she stopped and gave Ponyboy a big grin. He instantly wondered what else she could possibly have planned.

"Now," Margo said grabbing her bag, "Comes the fun part." She dumped the contents of her bag on the coffee table. Out spilled all kinds of art supplies, from markers to feathers.

Ponyboy looked at her in disbelief. "You're kidding, right?" he asked.

"Nope," Margo answered shortly, smiling. "My tutor did it with me, and now I pass the legacy on to you. It doesn't have to be some amazing work of art, just something to add a little personality. I know it really helped me my first day."

"The Socs are hard enough to deal with…"Ponyboy mumbled.

"Don't worry about them," Margo said encouragingly. "Just don't think about them right now. I am not saying that you have to keep the cover on forever, just try it out and see how you like it. If it doesn't work for you, you can rip it off, throw it away, and never have look at it again."

Ponyboy looked around the room. A lot of the gang had left soon after Margo showed up. There was only Steve and his brothers left. Soda and Steve were currently engrossed in a heated game of poker and Darry was reading the paper. Ponyboy was pretty sure they were all still keeping and eye on them to make sure the Soc girl didn't try anything.

Ponyboy sighed and turned back to the table. He silently picked up a pencil and started drawing. Ponyboy didn't need to look up to know that Margo was probably grinning ear to ear. He let out a quiet breath of relief when Margo stopped examining his sketch and started working on her own.

About half an hour passed before Ponyboy finished. He looked at them thinking that they weren't too bad, but there was no chance he was keeping these covers on. The Socs didn't need a reason to jump greasers. Ponyboy didn't want to think of what would happen if he gave them one.

He had textbooks that he covered. On his math book, he drew a picture of a student sleeping on a sheet of unfinished math problems. The other was for science and had an experiment gone horrible wrong. (**A/N** I'll leave that one up to your imagination)

"Finished?" Margo asked.

Ponyboy just nodded. He couldn't believe that he had just sat in his living room and done crafts in front of his brothers, not to mention Steve. He was never going to hear the end of this.

"Well Ponyboy," she said smiling, "I am glad you actually did this. I wasn't sure if I would be able to convince you."

"You didn't give me a choice," Ponyboy muttered. Margo ignored that comment and gathered her stuff.

"The next time I see you is when school starts," she said. She then put out her hand for Ponyboy to shake. He took it reluctantly and Margo said, "It was nice meeting you," She then looked around the room and said, "all of you too," and with that she left.

"Well," Soda said, "that was interesting."

"No kiddin'," Steve said, coming over Ponyboy. "Why don't you let us see what you drew?" He said making it obvious that it was not a request.

"No way," Ponyboy said running over to the couch. By this time Soda had joined Steve and they both tackled Ponyboy, trying to wrestle the books out of his hands. When they finally got them away from Pony, they stood there and smiled triumphantly.

"Aww, how cute," Steve said mockingly. Soda looked at them impressed.

"Pony, these are actually pretty good," Soda said encouragingly.

"Yea, well there is no way they are staying on. I only made them to get that girl off my back," Pony said ripping the covers off the books. "These are going straight on the garbage," he said going into the kitchen.

What Soda and Steve didn't know was that Ponyboy actually carefully folded them up and put them in his school back for Monday.

**A/N** Okay, well that was really short. I actually had a lot of fun writing this chapter, even though I know I am going to get so many reviews saying that would never happen and it is so occ, but oh well. I was just trying to build the relationship (friendship not romantic).

I just want to give another shout out to all authors out there. You are all my heroes and I idolize you so much. I tried to include all the suggestions I got in reviews, but it is not possible to make everyone happy. Good job to everyone for continuing to write, no matter what is said.

**whatcoloristhesky-** Thank you for the help. I tried to do better with the grammar this chapter. If you see any mistakes (and I'm sure that they are in there) that I missed, please let me know. I am not very good with grammar, so it is good to know I have a self-proclaimed Grammar Nazi reading.


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